Viewing fractal's Snapzine
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1.
'Flow' vital for happy, fulfilled life
Spending time immersed in effortless concentration and enjoyment, or flow, is vital for a happy and fulfilled life.
Posted in: by kxh -
2.
Dunhuang: a city on the old Silk Road - in pictures
Images from Dunhuang - one of the ancient world's most important meeting places of East and West on the old Silk Road.
Posted in: by Cobbydaler -
3.
The Marvels of India’s Maze-like Stepwells
For the past four years, journalist Victoria Lautman has been photographing an overlooked feature of Indian architectural history: the stepwell.
Posted in: by Boudicca -
4.
How corporates co-opted the art of mindfulness to make us bear the unbearable
Corporate culture has stripped the ancient practice of mindfulness of its spirituality and re-branded it as a modern solution to over-work.
Posted in: by kxh -
5.
How to Build an Upside-Down Fire: The Only Fireplace Method You'll Ever Need
Total reading time: 9 minutes. How would you like to light a fire perfectly and have it burn for 3-7 hours without touching it or putting on more wood? It can be done, every time, but it requires forgetting everything you've learned about starting fires...
Posted in: by GingerBreadMan -
6.
The Ghosts of Old London
To dispel my disappointment that I cannot rent that Room to Let in Old Aldgate, I find myself returning to scrutinize the collection of pictures taken by the Society for Photographing the Relics of Old London held in the archive at the Bishopsgate Institute. It gives me great pleasure to look closely and see the loaves of bread in the window and read the playbills on the wall in this photograph of a shop in Macclesfield St in 1883.
Posted in: by Cobbydaler -
7.
Commented in What are some psychology hacks that can help in every day life?
The Franklin Effect. Use it wisely.
It's not got a huge amount of experimental evidence backing it up, but it essentially says that, if you want someone to like you, ask them for a favour. A small thing, usually, one they would generally perform out of politeness, like lending a book or helping you carry something. Although we would expect people to like us more if we do a favour for them, the human mind seems fantastic at resolving things in ways which benefit us. So if we have done something nice for someone, it must be because we like them, because we don't do nice things for people we don't like.
Also, to be a better person, try to be vigilant in looking out for the corollary to this. Just as we must like someone because we have done something nice for them, we also believe that, if we have hurt someone, we must not like them. It certainly couldn't be that our action was expedient or beneficial for us, or that we really didn't care about hurting them, because we are good people. Therefore, we must not like them and there must be a reason for that. See: every dehumanising, demonising campaign against people we want to use or who our actions will hurt. History has plenty of examples. We hate the people we hurt. Be aware of this tendency, and be better than that. Know when you're rationalising your bad behaviour so you don't have to feel bad or apologise or act differently.
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8.
MAN
Steve Cutts' brilliant animation about mans relationship with the natural world, viz., the destructiveness of our consumer culture
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9.
The Straw Vulcan, Julia Galef Skepticon 4
Julia Galef's Skepticon 4 speech about the unrealistic portrayals of rationalism and skepticism portrayed in media and perpetuated in popular wisdom.
Posted in: by spaceghoti